The present invention relates generally to photovoltaic materials and manufacturing method. More particularly, the present invention provides a method and structure for fabricating shaped thin-film solar cells. Merely by way of example, the present method and structure include a patterned thin film stack layer for the manufacture of copper indium gallium diselenide based thin-film photovoltaic devices in tubular shape, but it would be recognized that the invention may have other configurations.
In the process of manufacturing CIS and/or CIGS types of thin films on substrates with planar, tubular, cylindrical, circular or other flexible shapes, there are various manufacturing challenges, such as maintaining structure integrity of substrate materials, ensuring uniformity and granularity of the thin film material, etc. While conventional techniques in the past have addressed some of these issues, they are often inadequate in various situations. Therefore, it is desirable to have improved systems and method for manufacturing thin-film photovoltaic devices on shaped substrates.